CMA’s Water Quality Committee meets monthly at the CMA office. Chaired by Jimmy Boswell of Peabody Energy, the committee has addressed a number of common water quality issues that members face in permitting and enforcement contexts.Several CMA members met last month with John Swartout, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper’s Senior Policy Advisor, to express their views on these issues. The...
Office of Surface Mining and Enforcement, Western Region
Dave Berry, Regional Director of the Office of Surface Mining and Enforcement, Western Region, updated the committee about his agency’s focus on the overall Department of Interior reorganization efforts. At this time, the reorganization will create six regions in the western region of coordinated agency efforts, and 12 regions nationwide. The Department’s...
Everyone seems to be holding their breath until the November 6 election. Plans for the 2019 General Assembly, both for legislators and interest groups, hinge on which party will control the State Senate and the Governor’s office, as well as which legislators will be available to sponsor various bills. Committee chairs are determined by the majority party, as are...
Earlier this spring, the Interstate Mining Compact Commission (IMCC) selected CMAEF’s course, “All About Mining: 21st Century Mining for K-12 Educators” as the winner of its 2018 Mineral Education Award in the Public Outreach category. The IMCC is a multi-state governmental agency / organization that represents the natural resource and related environmental protection interests of its member states.
This award recognizes CMAEF’s course for achieving excellence in providing educational outreach that increases the...
The CMA Water Quality Committee meets monthly to discuss a number of state and federal water quality issues. CMA’s Water Quality Committee chairman, Jimmy Boswell of Peabody Energy, and committee members have prepared issue papers covering topics the committee has discussed for several years. Members of the committee may view these papers in the document library, here. Interested in joining the...
CMA’s Coal, Hardrock and Uranium Committees meet jointly each month and provide members the opportunity to not only keep up to date on policy issues CMA is working on, but also the chance to interact with other CMA members. We find engagement among members at CMA meetings to be especially beneficial at these meetings. At the August meeting we were fortunate to have two representatives of the EPA Region 8 in attendance. ...
August 6 was the deadline for several ballot initiatives to submit petition signatures in order to qualify for the November ballot. Seven were turned in, including two competing proposals to fund transportation, and an oil/gas setback requirement of 2500 feet, In addition, a broadly worded measure on compensation for lowering the fair market value of private property rights was turned in August 3 and a tax...
Meeting Summary
1) Permitting process improvements / Streamlining options – Generally a topic for the Permit Issues Forum (PIF). Have monthly meetings with other dischargers.
a) WQCD participated in a LEAN event. General permit focus. Individual permits take all permitting options into account.
b) Any sort of meeting or informal comment period prior to public notice is a non-starter. WQCD upper management...
The Colorado Mining Association Education Foundation (CMAEF) annual All About Mining course took place in June, providing 16 teachers with eight spectacular days of information-packed classes and tours to various Colorado sites.
This annual program, which was originally launched back in 1968, begins with a refresher of lectures on the Colorado School of Mines campus, with a few local tours...
Colorado’s coal industry continues to be an important contributor to the state’s economy, especially in the rural areas where the mines are located. Colorado receives half of the federal coal royalties paid by coal producers along with property and sales taxes paid to local governments. The mines also provide high paying jobs to hard working miners who work and...